MINUTES OF TORNADO RESIDENTS’ COMMUNAL MEAL
Monday 3rd October

Minutes by Jon Mobberley and Val Hazarika 
- Apologies for any errors or omissions - please write with any corrections.

Moseley, Sparkbrook and Sparkhill Forums
	NB: I did not attend the early part of the meeting and discussion arising from this first point on the agenda is, as far as I know, unminuted.
	Each person's individual contribution is preceded by a bullet point.

Renewal - a proposal from Russ
•	Russ put forward his proposal for elections to a central committee, which was as publicised via email. Russ spoke of the need to make the interim meetings more accountable, and ensure people are not excluded from the process
•	I can see the need for small groups, but am confused as to the need for a central committee
•	The Council is presenting a document already, which they refer to as 'the document'. We need a small group to negotiate with the council to ensure 'the document' is ours not theirs. There was in the past an SRB fund for Sparkbrook - can anyone tell what happened to it? We can get money to spend.
•	I agree that this forum is becoming a talking shop. We need small working groups to take action.
•	Action groups can form as well. A need for groups to form between the communal meals has already been demonstrated. The Central Committee doesn't need to be the only group - the emergency fund group is in the process of forming, for example. The central group does not need to be the only group which forms.
•	There is loads of work to be done, enough to keep everyone busy. First we need to know our aims, then second get people involved in pursuing them.
•	It seems that small groups is where the work happens. Can we make written submissions to Dick for his document?
•	WE need to organise the street reps system - there is an email and phone tree system for information. A small committee is necessary if action is to get going.
•	Visibility is very important, we need to make the problems and solutions visible to as many people as possible. We should talk to our neighbours; an emergency list would be useful, a list of those who need emergency help now.
•	Everyone can join in. No. 6 does not necessarily know everything that is needed or is happening in their street.
•	It seems there will be about 12-20 people on the committee. It should be transparent, and act as a communications channel [between residents and authorities?]. 

Reports Back

•	Dick's document seems riddled with acronyms.
•	We could have a community radio station for the short term - government funding is apparently available for such a project. We should be approaching housing associations to 'get the process going'.
•	Communications being very important, 'Marketing Birmingham' could be contacted to help market affected areas - their job is to market Birmingham business, albeit to outside the city. We could also make use of their telephone.
•	There was an idea to have a play/family centre in Balsall Heath; in Dick's document this seems to have become a 'civic and community centre'. Why the discrepancy? The whole process seems to have altered since the energy and openness of the first Communal Meal, it's been closed down and narrowed to supporting Dick's document rather than us owning the ideas. Propose forming a working group to draft the document; currently don't feel any ownership over the document.
•	Support for a 'pod' in Balsall Heath park, and a youth worker.
•	A major priority should be the cleaning of public drains - they are becoming very bad. The businesses on Ladypool Road need support.
•	Official should visit the area on a frequent and regular basis to consult. Youth who have 'made it', who can hold themselves and have pride in their achievements - 'role models' could be invited to speak, face to face, to local youth to inspire them. Active role models/mentors.
•	A Young Residents Volunteer Scheme, perhaps mobilising young people to work on the local park, would work well; if young people had input into building the future then we would have more pride and sense of ownership over what we create. Also, a Young Person's Empowerment scheme could exist, perhaps tied in with the Volunteer scheme.
•	Young people need space to perform, organise, make art, put on shows, book venues, and make crafts. I work at such a place and know it works well. We need to involve youth in creative projects.   
•	We need to use local skills better. There are all sorts of skills locally, for instance there are skills in consulting we could make use of which would produce superior results to those from an outside consultant with no local knowledge.
•	Creative Art can be used for issue-based projects. Issues can be tackled effectively using this method.
•	We need to work together to invite other forums to get together in our communities.
•	Can we take away the document if we want to work on it, rather than handing it in now?
•	Yes, people can do that.
•	Are there any deadlines?
•	The council has already submitted its document; the consultant will submit his soon. We arte under pressure; we have maybe three weeks to get our document in. The document should perhaps have a big hole in the middle, a 'watch this space', to be filled in as we get further consultation form under represented areas and give the communities a chance to build up their ideas. The document would then have the function of putting down a marker, holding ground for those people - but we need to get something in.
•	Will the council follow their own course, follow that of the consultant, or something else?
•	The meeting with the consultant involved him taking a bulleted list of points from residents, and he needed a great deal of explanation given to him about basic local issues. It seemed to be something of an image exercise. What's needed is a process of listening, not mere ‘consulting’. I would say we need a twin track approach; we need that 'listening' process and the process we are putting in place - in my opinion.
•	Don't rely on Sparkbrook forum to appear - we in Sparkbrook are not represented by them; we have no one behind us. We feel very frustrated. Can we represent Sparkbrook instead?
•	Yes!
•	I'm also frustrated. The Council is playing divide and rule here.
•	Proposal: the document needs a half a day at least to finalise for submission; lets set aside that time to work on it.
•	Sparkbrook: how will we be represented?
•	We could have a petition in support of the residents plan for regeneration, petitioning the relevant authorities to accept it.

Date of Next Meeting.
•	The issue of Ramadan complicates the date of future meetings.
•	Saturday, morning or afternoon?
•	It was decided to have meetings a week Wednesday evening from 7pm, and a week on Saturday from 2-4pm

AOB
It was proposed that action groups take the initiative to form in the meantime.
There was a proposal that, if we are doing a petition, we could also while getting signatures put in a questionnaire. This would be very useful for assessing immediate emergency needs, and for doing our own consultation.